We’ve had some challenges with Molly lately, the first being that she had a sudden flare-up of an ear infection that required emergency care. Once we got that under control, she injured one of her legs jumping into the back of the truck. Luckily, one of our friends is a vet who does chiropractic, cranio-sacral work, acupuncture and homeopathy. Molly got an appointment with her yesterday, which helped a lot, and she’ll be getting a homeopathic work-up soon to deal with a deep-seated systemic infection that anti-biotics haven’t touched, and that she’s probably had since before we got her.

I think the hard part for me when an animal gets sick is they can’t actually tell you how they feel. It would be the same for a baby or toddler who can’t talk yet – how do you know what to do? I guess the key is to get the right kind of help and stay positive and never give up. My sister is my hero because she’s gone through some serious illnesses with two of her kids. They are doing great now and she never stopped projecting a positive attitude, no matter how scary it got. I’m in the minor leagues when it comes to that because I’ve only had pets, not kids.

With all the attention being on Molly lately, Sammy’s been a bit jealous and acting out. I took the dogs out in the pasture with me the other day while gardening and I had Sammy secured to a tree on a tie-out line. This was after he had already snapped his leather lead chasing the neighbor’s dogs. Once I got him tied up again I started doing my work, and my husband drove up in our big pickup after going to get a load of compost. Well, Molly took off to greet him and Sammy took off right after her, forgetting (or not caring) that he was still tied up. I saw it all happen from a distance and couldn’t stop it – Sammy reached the end of his line and jerked himself off his feet. He flipped in the air and slipped right out of his harness and ran up to greet his papa. I think this guy is going to need a chirpractic tune-up with the vet!